Have you ever felt so overwhelmed by emotion that you didn't even know what you were really feeling?
It's a fairly common occurrence. It’s also one of the reasons people often feel like either avoiding emotions altogether or simply lashing out. Due to the overwhelming sensory input during times of stress and the confusion of what to pay attention to in those times, emotions can layer upon each other and be difficult to decipher. This makes it hard to understand what is happening.
As a result, it can be frustrating to even know what to do with the emotions or how to act.
Tips for Calming the Emotional Storm
· It can help to take a few slow deep breaths when you notice that your system is overwhelmed with many emotions at once.
· Then, notice where you feel discomfort in your body.
· Pick the spot where you notice the most discomfort, and simply focus on it for a few minutes.
· Pay attention to any shifting of sensation that occurs.
· Notice if any thoughts come to mind that seem to be related to your chosen physical location sensations you are focusing on.
· Next, focus on only that segment of things, and see if you can identify what emotion is contained in that area.
Try on “Emotion” Names
You might also try on different emotional words to test out what you might be feeling, for example, ask yourself:
· Am I sad?
· Am I hurt?
· Am I feeling betrayed?
· Am I scared?
· Am I jealous?
After you slow things down and evaluate one portion of your experience from the various angles offered above, you can then move on to the next segment. Anywhere you feel discomfort or tightness in your body may be holding clues to what your feelings are and what they are trying to tell you that you need.
Figuring out each piece of the emotional puzzle may, for instance, sound like this:
· I feel sadness because my co-worker is moving away.
· I feel frustrated because my schedule was already jam-packed and disgusted because her work is now assigned to me to do.
· I am stressed because I don’t know that I have enough time to handle it, and I’m afraid my boss will be angry with me.
Then, you can develop an action plan to put you back in the driver’s seat of your life, which may be something like this:
Step 1: Tell my manager that I have concerns about being able to fit everything in.
Step 2: Ask my manager to reassign some tasks to someone else.
Step 3: Buy Sally a gift and get her personal cell number so we can keep in touch.
When you can break your many feelings down into individual chunks of information, you can take one step at a time and one action at a time to feel better.
For more help to learn to identify your emotions and effectively manage them, to overcome negative behaviors, or if you are suffering from depression, anxiety, or trauma, Omaha Trauma Therapy is here to help! EMDR and Brainspotting therapy techniques are our specialty. Overwhelming feelings can sometimes be due to personality disorders such as Borderline Personality Disorder, Histrionic Personality Disorder, Dissociative Identity Disorder, otherwise known as multiple personality disorder, or other mental health issues such as depression, stress, or anxiety. Whether you want the best treatment for BPD or any personality or mood disorder or relationship issue, we want to provide you with a holistic approach to reach your mental health goals. Contact us.